Marc Sewtz

Thursday, June 2, 2016

We are very excited to announce the beginning of the Oracle Application Express 5.1 Early Adopter program, at https://apexea.oracle.com. The Early Adopter is an open-to-the-public hosted beta program. And we’re inviting everyone interested in Oracle Application Express - existing customers and new customers alike - to sign up for a free workspace and take our forthcoming release for a spin.

To get started, click the "Request a Workspace" button from the https://apexea.oracle.com home page, sign-in with your Oracle account (i.e. the same account you use for other Oracle sites, like OTN) and complete the sign-up wizard.

There are numerous new features to explore, including the Interactive Grid and Oracle JET charts. As this is an Early Adopters release, not everything is complete just yet, you can review a list of known issues here:

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

The result of a two and half year engineering effort, Oracle Application Express 5.0 represents the greatest advancement of Oracle Application Express in its 10-year history. Oracle Application Express 5.0 enables customers to develop, design and deploy beautiful, responsive, database-driven desktop and mobile applications using only a browser.

Now that APEX 5.0 is finally available, it’s time to spread the word and to get everyone up to speed on what’s new in 5.0, how to make best use of the beautiful, new Universal Theme and how to get the most out of the incredibly powerful new Page Designer.
So here are some of the events coming up in the near future, where you can learn all about APEX 5.0 and meet many of the APEX development team members in person:APEXposed 2015Montreal, Canada - May 6, 2015

... and be sure to join one of the numerousAPEX Meetup groups world wide - and if there isn't one close to where you live, then consider starting your own local APEX Meetup group - don't know how to do that? Check out the APEX Meetup site for helpful information:

Friday, October 24, 2014

Ever heard of APEX$ROW_NUM, APEX$ROW_SELECTOR and APEX$ROW_STATUS? Did you know you can reference tabular form columns using bind variable syntax in your page processes? Are you familiar with the execution scope of tabular form processes for modified vs submitted rows? Ever struggled using apex_application.g_fxx arrays with checkboxes? And do you really need to use the apex_item APIs? In APEX 4.0, 4.1 and 4.2 we've introduced lots of new tabular form features, including declarative tabular form validations and page processes, yet there are still PL/SQL processes being written that loop through the apex_application.g_fxx arrays or tabular form regions that mix apex_item API calls with using built-in form elements.

So when planning our next #ORCLAPEX NYC Meetup, we've figured this would be a great topic to cover. And since we don't want to talk you to death during a single meetup - we decided that we'll do a three part series, starting slow and covering the basics during our next meetup on 11/06, then dig a little deeper in part two and then conclude this series with a grand finale during the third meetup in this series.

Join us on Thurday, November 6th at the Oracle office in Manhattan, at 120 Park Ave. We're starting at 6pm and we'll serve pizza this time - thanks to everyone's generous donations last time.

Monday, May 19, 2014

Are you ready to give your apps a fresh new look & feel?
APEX 5.0 will bring you the Universal Theme and Template Options – a modern,
responsive HTML5 theme that takes the guesswork out of choosing the right HTML
templates and CSS classes. Thanks to easy-to-use declarative template options,
you no longer have to be a HTML/CSS guru in order to create modern and
beautiful web applications.

Want to learn more? Then join us for an APEX 5.0 preview
this Friday, May 23 at our first ORCLAPEX NYC Meetup:

Thursday, April 24, 2014

We’re excited to announce the first ever Oracle Application
Express Meetup in New York City. Join us on May 23rd at the Oracle
office at 120 Park Ave – right across from Grand Central. Meet other APEX
developers working in the area and see what’s coming in APEX 5.0. New to APEX?
Don’t worry, we’ll get you up to speed and show you what this product is all
about.

As a special guest speaker, we’ll have Peter Raganitsch,
from Click Click IT Solution in Vienna, Austria - known in the community for the
APEXlib framework and the FOEX plug-in - show us how to use friendly URLs with
your APEX applications

Friday, January 17, 2014

If you’re interested in developing Mobile Web Apps on the Oracle Database – and if you’re following my Blog, chances are that you are – then here’s a great opportunity to get up to speed on the latest trends and learn how you can quickly and easily develop your own mobile web apps and extend your existing APEX apps for mobile use: attend my upcoming free ODTUG Webinar on February 20th:

Smartphones and tablets are now commonly used throughout the enterprise. Thanks to easy to use mobile apps, ready access to the Internet, and widespread use of web- and cloud-based applications, mobile devices are a logical choice for many employees. Businesses need to respond to these trends by modernizing their public facing websites for mobile use and providing employees with access to in-house applications that support a variety of different devices and screen sizes. Solely building for desktop use and standardizing on IE only won’t cut it anymore.

Oracle Application Express (APEX) provides you with powerful tools to quickly and efficiently build mobile web apps and to easily extend your existing desktop applications for mobile use. Regardless of whether these applications were built with APEX originally or use other technologies—as long as they’re running on top of an Oracle Database, APEX will enable you to quickly build mobile apps that provide access to your data and interact with your business processes.

During this session, we’ll discuss mobile development trends and responsive web design, walk you through the basics of the jQuery Mobile framework, and provide you with an overview of the mobile development capabilities built into the current release of Oracle Application Express 4.2. We will include several live demos to get you started, so have your phone or tablet ready to try out our sample apps live while they are being built.

Additional information on ODTUG Webinars and a list of other upcoming Webinars can be found here:

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Are you interested in developing Mobile web applications with Oracle Application Express? Do you want to see some of the features that are going to be introduced with Oracle Application Express 5.0? Then join us at the Bulgarian Oracle User Group Conference, taking place in Plovdiv, Bulgaria from November 22nd to November 24th. Roel Hartman and I will be doing four sessions on Oracle Application Express, covering everything from what’s new in APEX 5.0, starting mobile development with APEX, taking a sneak peek at the new mobile development capabilities coming in 5.0 to building hybrid apps with APEX and PhoneGap / Cordova. Additionally I’ll also cover some SQL Developer tips and tricks and best practices:

About Me

I’m a Senior Software Development Manager for Oracle Application Express (APEX). Having joined Oracle in 1998, I was first introduced to APEX in 2001 while working on a Consulting project, attempting to write extensions to the Oracle E-Business using various technologies and finally succeeding with APEX.

Sometime after that, I joined the Oracle Application Express development group, and together with my team, we’ve been developing the reporting engine, tabular forms, PDF printing and integration with BI Publisher, Oracle Forms to APEX conversion, charts, dynamic actions and the APEX UI and themes.

One of the best things about APEX over the years has been the fact that it’s easily available via Internet, using simple tools like a web browser. This is what makes it possible for me to live in New York City, while working with my team members in India, Europe and the United States, together, every day, on a single APEX instance – I guess they call that cloud computing these days. The views expressed on this blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Oracle.